Darren Rizzi – September 13, 2018
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Thursday, September 13, 2018
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(What stood out to you on WR Jakeem Grant’s return for a touchdown?) – “A lot of things. I know Jakeem has mentioned it a bunch, but just a really good job of execution by the blocking unit, by the return unit. A play like that doesn’t happen where a guy goes untouched if you don’t have 11 guys. We call it one-eleventh. Our players have talked about that before. That was really the epitome of one-eleventh, everybody doing their job. As you guys know, a couple of guys on that unit were really only here a couple of days, so that’s always an interesting thing as well and good for them. (Brandon) Bolden had a great kick-out block, Senorise (Perry) really had a great lead block. A couple of really good blocks on the inside. I think Jakeem really executed the play with how we like to execute it, with kind of the little details we talked about. I kind of had a front row seat where I was sitting. It was coming right at me and you could kind of see one springing. We had that kick-out block, we had a really nice seam there and then Jakeem did the rest by outrunning everybody, but (it was) a really good job by the entire unit and Jakeem really just putting the cherry on the sundae, if you will. ”
(Have you been a part of a game where it’s one touchdown on each side on the kickoff return?) – “Unfortunately I have. Riding the roller coaster. I think one other time here, if I’m not mistaken – one of the years up in Buffalo. If I’m not mistaken, Marcus Thigpen had a kickoff return for a touchdown, I think they returned a punt for a touchdown. I’m not sure exactly what year that was. You guys could look that up better than me, you guys have the info on it; but yes, that was one of those games as well, where I think they had a punt and we had a kickoff. We certainly rode the roller coaster a little bit there on Sunday, for sure.”
(What went wrong on that one Titans kickoff return?) – “It’s one of those all of the above’s. A little bit of everything there. First of all, starting with me, not a great call, not a great kick, not great coverage, not great tackling. So, we’ll go with letter ‘E,’ all of the above. It wasn’t really good by anybody in that regard. That’s one of the things we have to improve on the most this week is our coverage. It’s something we take a lot of pride in, as you guys know. It’s one of the things we were really good at last year and that has to carry over. We have to improve quickly in that area.”
(I’ve been wondering about K Jason Sanders kicking short of the end zone. Is that by design?) – “You guys know that we’ve done that a lot here based on both. We’re not worried about his leg strength a little bit. Sometimes it’s by design, sometimes it’s not by design. There’s kickers who sometimes try to swing for the fence and kind of – it’s like a golf swing, sometimes you chunk the ball a little bit or cut underneath the ball or get a little bit too much, so it can be a combination of things.”
(There was a lot mentioned this offseason about the new kickoff rule. Did you feel like that had any impact on either of those touchdowns.) – “I think it’s a much more wide open play, so I definitely do. Number one, for the kickoff return team, it’s much easier to identify the kick coverage and who you’re blocking assignment-wise. With the old rule, you could go six by four, you could motion guys, you could move guys around and occasionally it could get confusing for the return team if you didn’t really practice that particular week – if someone threw something new at you, a little bit of a curveball. So, definitely. I think I mentioned this already – it’s a much more wide open play. When you don’t have those eight players up, there’s more spacing on the play. Again, a guy like Jakeem (Grant) and for their guy, kudos to him, he made a big play too. You see more of a wide-open play. You have to be able to tackle in the open field a little bit better. There’s not those wedge-blockers. Some people liken it to a punt return. I guess you could say that a little bit, but I just look at it as a much more wide-open kick return play. I know the kick return average is up in Week 1 and is higher than it’s been. We’ll kind of see if that carries through the rest of the year. Overall, I think I talked about this a couple of weeks ago, I really believe in my heart that over the course of the year, you’ll see the touchback percentage go down a little bit, you’ll see more returns. I think it’s a safer play and a more wide open play. ”
(How would you say your special teams performed last Sunday?) – “Like I said before, a little bit of a roller coaster. Obviously, we made a huge play, we had a game changer; but we kind of let them kind of get back in a little bit as well. You kind of look at it overall, there were some things you’re pleased with. It’s kind of like every game. Some things you’re happy with, some things you have to improve on. You can’t let up a big play. That’s unacceptable. So in that regard, we have to certainly manage that a lot better. But there were some things I was very happy with. It’s kind of like every game for me, though. I think there’s always going to be some things that you’re looking to improve on, no question, especially this part of the year. But on the flip side of the coin, we had a big kickoff return for a touchdown, we recovered an onside kick at the end of the game with our hands team. We really handled the punt – they put 11 men up at the end of the game – we handled that very well. So, situationally I was very happy with that part of it. I thought mentally, we did a really good job. It’s just our execution, our tackling, our coverages can be a little bit better.”
(During the offseason, a lot of the moves were about helping culture and getting football guys and so forth. Has that bled down into special teams, and if so, how?) – “First off, when you go back to the offseason, we looked at where we were as a special teams unit, and one of the priorities was getting a guy like Walt Aikens signed. There were guys we couldn’t get signed back for whatever reason. I’m not going to get into that right now. So, there’s some new bodies, there’s some new faces, there’s some of those guys. But that’s really a challenge every year for the special teams coach. Every year, regardless of what happens, there’s going to be changes at the bottom of the roster, and let’s be honest, that’s the players that I’m dealing with. It’s no secret. It’s the bottom of the roster that I have to do a great job and we have to do as a special teams staff of managing those guys. Every year I’ve been here – this is going to be year 10 for me – there hasn’t been a year where there hasn’t been some type of switch. Some years more than others. It might be four or five guys one year, it might be seven or eight another year. It’s always going to affect me in that sense. That’s one of the biggest things I’m challenged with is making sure that group, no matter who it is, we’re ready to play. I felt like in some ways we were on Sunday, and in other ways, like the big play, we weren’t. It’s certainly a challenge, there’s no doubt.”
(When you make an addition like RB Brandon Bolden, who comes with a reputation as a really solid, good locker room guy, what does that mean to you?) – “First off, that was a great addition. I’ve only known him personally for a short amount of time – I’ve always coached against him, so I knew him as a player and now I get to know the person a lot better. He’s everything I expected and maybe a little bit more. He’s very well-prepared, very mature, a great locker room guy, great preparation in the meeting rooms. I made mention about him this morning in our special teams meetings – he is a guy who was here for four days and not one mental mistake. He was in the right place. We threw a lot at him. All of the terminology for him is different. Special teams is special teams, but all of the lingo for him is different. His terminology, his alignments, his assignments, all of that (is different). He played a clean game and had a huge block on our big play. I think he’s a great role model for the guys that are just getting here, or the new guys, or the rookies or the young guys. This is a guy that I feel other guys can follow and look at him and the way he practices, the way he prepares and the way he plays. So, I think he’s a great addition. I think he kind of follows the line of what you’re seeing in the locker room. That type of guy, that’s the type of guy that we’re looking for around here, for sure.”
(LS John Denney has been here 14 years. You haven’t been here quite that long, but what’s his personality like? What’s he like to work with?) – “I have two daughters, and if my daughters married a guy like John Denney someday, I’ll be very, very happy. He is A-plus across the board, not only as a player – forget about him as a player – as a person, he is an A-plus-plus guy. Off the field, he’s a great human being. He’s a person that’s going to give you the shirt off of his back, literally. He’s a very religious guy, he’s a great father, he’s a great husband. He’s a tremendous role model as a person. Everything I could say positive about him, he’s always going to be above. That guy is great. Not only that, but as a player, you talk about preparation, his offseason, all of that stuff. I always use him with the younger guys, ‘Come here, watch what this guy does. Look how this guy trains, watch how this guy prepares.’ Even though he’s a long snapper – forget about what he does in between the lines – watch everything outside the lines and that’s what a professional football player, in my opinion, he is that role model of a football player. It’s not a surprise to me he’s lasted this long. He’s in great shape. I’ve talked about this before, he’s in phenomenal physical condition. Although he’s going on 40, he’s in as good a shape as anybody on this team, and so that’s why he’s been able to last. Obviously, the position helps as well. I get it. But certainly not a surprise to me.”
(If he snaps the ball 100 times, how many are going to be perfect snaps?) – “He’s probably grading out at about an A. I would say 90 out of 100 or more. Field goal snaps and punt snaps are obviously different. A great guy to talk about that is Matt Haack. Matt Haack is catching every snap that he throws back there, whether it’s a punt or a field goal. Obviously, Matt’s our holder. So, Matt’s going to tell you that he really enjoys having him there, for sure.”
(I was wondering because you don’t have depth at specialist positions, do you take a survey at some point in August to see who has long snapped before or who can kick in a pinch? How do you find the emergency guys?) – “That’s a great question. We have ways to do that. We’ve got a couple of unique ways to do that. Obviously we go around and we’ll have a little bit of a foundation coming in. We know the player coming in, if you have any background. If you didn’t have any background in college, then we go around and start asking about high school. And then sometimes we trick some guys into it too. (laughter) For example, I may say something like, ‘Hey, I know your high school coach. He let me know you were a long snapper in high school.’ And the kid is like, ‘You know my high school coach? How’d you know I snapped?’ And I didn’t know his high school coach. (laughter) So he would say, ‘I can’t believe you talked to Coach Smith.’ I didn’t talk to Coach Smith but I’m glad I know you long snap now. (laughter) So now we’ll start practicing that guy every day at long snapper. So there’s a bunch of different ways to go about it. I’m joking, but I’m not joking. So myself and (Assistant Special Teams Coach) Marwan (Maalouf), we go through the roster and we find out the background on guys for really their whole life. Have they been a returner? Have they been a snapper? Have they been a holder? Have they been a kicker? Have they been a punter? Because again, with 46 guys on the sideline as was the case on Sunday, you never know when that situation is going to present itself and you have to have options. There’s been games, and I know my former assistant Dave Fipp, up in Philadelphia, he had a game a couple of years ago where they were down to their third snapper. Their snapper got hurt and the guy that went in for him got hurt, and they were down their third guy. It’s a crazy situation. So you have to be prepared for all of these scenarios. We kind of have a pretty good baseline on everybody and what they’ve done.”
(So how many snaps did TE Durham Smythe take since he’s been here?) – “He’s taken more on one-on-one. In team reps, not a lot. As you guys know, we don’t get a lot of team reps to begin with, so the ones … we’ll throw our guys in there, whether it’s been Mike Hull or MarQueis Gray. Mike Hull and MarQueis Gray were two of our snappers. So obviously going into last week, MarQueis Gray was really our backup snapper.”
(So TE Durham Smythe is like the fourth-string long snapper?) – “Yes. If you asked me this question in preseason, he would have been fourth. That’s correct. That’s absolutely correct.”
(I would say DT Ndamukong Suh as an emergency kicker is a little surprising, especially if you didn’t know he had done it in Detroit. But have you ever come across some random thing like S Reshad Jones knows how to punt or anything like that?) – “Everybody says they’re a kicker. Everybody says ‘Oh, I can kick,’ because they want to score points. So we’ll line guys up and say ‘Okay, let’s see what you’ve got.’ It’s ugly. It’s disgusting. (laughter) As a special teams coach, it’s gross. It’s bad. It’s bad, bad, bad.”
(What was a good find though? What’s one that was good where you were like, ‘Wow, this guy is good.’) – “Believe it or not, we’ve had some guys that are smaller guys, like small receivers, that have been able to snap. Like they played quarterback before. A lot of times if you can throw the ball pretty well, you can snap the ball pretty well. So there’s some little guys that we’ve found throughout the years that have been pretty good snappers. There’s been a number of guys that have been some smaller guys; but again, when you go into … A lot of the offensive linemen that have played center throughout the years, those guys can snap. There are a couple of guys on our roster that can short-snap. So there’s been some guys that, throughout the years, whether it be kick or punt or snap, (they can do it). But we have to know. We have to have those plans and as you said before, you never know what’s going to happen.”
(DE/LB Jason Taylor was your backup punter, right?) – “Jason Taylor was. I’ve got to give you a great story. I’ve got to give you a great backup snapper. This is one of my favorite stories since I’ve been here. So we had a punter here my first year or second year, an Australian guy, that came in for camp. His name was Jy Bond. I don’t know if you guys remember Jy Bond. So Jy Bond was a punter that we had here in the preseason. So Jy goes in and just like we would do once in awhile, every once in awhile we’d bring our backup snapper in. So we bring up Jason Taylor. So this was Year 2 for me. This was 2010, if I’m not mistaken. So we say, ‘J.T., take this last one. Take this punt.’ So Jy Bond, growing up in Australia, he doesn’t know Jason Taylor from Lawrence Taylor. So he’s back there and Jason Taylor snaps one and he snaps the ball a little bit high and Jy kind of scrambles and punts it off and the punt period is over. So everyone is walking off the field and Jy Bond goes ‘Hey, ‘99’.’ (laughter) And Jason Taylor is walking off the field and is kind of thinking to myself, ‘I know this guy didn’t just say that.’ So he’s walking and they’re about 20 yards away and he goes, ‘I said Hey ‘99’’ and Jason Taylor looks over. He goes ‘Yes, that snap was a little bit up here.’ And Jason Taylor goes ‘Hey buddy, why don’t you do me a favor and just kick the effing ball and don’t worry about me.’ (laughter) So we had to kind of bring Jy over to the side and kind of explain to him who he was dealing with at that point. Of course, to this day, J.T. and I actually laugh about it. I saw him last night at my son’s JV game. Our sons play football together. So every once in awhile, we joke around about that. That’s always a good one though. ‘Hey ’99.’’ That’s my good backup snapper story. I thought you guys would enjoy that one.”
(So who are the guys on this roster that could do it if called upon?) – “Again, we’re always going to have at least three as a backup emergency. Right now, I’d say there’s four guys on our team that could snap it if they had to in an emergency situation. That’s not including (Mike) Hull and (MarQueis) Gray.”
(I’m not going to be able to top that but you had CB Bobby McCain and S T.J. McDonald play every snap on defense and 12 and 11 snaps on special teams. Is that the higher end of the usage you want to have?) – “Well, if you look at those snaps, I want to say five of them were field goal block, which is a defensive play for us. Then we had another defense stay on for our punt return. We kept the defense out and only brought the returner in. We kept the defense out. So I think that was half of their snaps. But you know what? As always here, we’re going to have starting players that are going to have roles, especially defensive players. That’s been the case throughout. The team we’re playing this week, the Jets, they do a lot of that. They’ve got a lot of defensive players that play on one or two teams. Bobby has been a starter here before and he’s always been on a couple of things. T.J. did the same thing when he was with the Rams. So some of the jobs they’ve done before and are used to, they’re always going to be usually involved in at least one team. Field goal block is kind of a separate unit.”
